Progressive Entropy

There has always been idealist, naive side of my brain that is constantly obsessed with the thought of changing the world. Somewhere along the ride I observed the power of startups to change the world with incredible people behind them, I've been hooked on how I could harness this energy to improve the lives of others. Though, I witnessed how tough of a journey it is and there is a lot I would need to learn, I did exactly that over the past several years.

But, at some point you realize that preparing to do "the thing" is a LOT different than actually doing "the thing." There is no substitute for the first-hand experience of the trenches, and it's the best way to truly evolve in this game. Therefore, I've decided to bet on myself and venture out of my own to build from scratch. 

I don't have any specific plans on what my next adventure will be... just a mindset, some guiding principles, and a whole lot of supportive figures in my life who are allowing me to embark on a brand new journey.

Starting this Saturday I will begin as an On Deck Founder Fellow to meet with potential cofounders, explore ideas, talk to customers, and maybe even start dabbling in building a product. It's rare for me to get excited about the future as I am right now; humanity has so much to improve upon and I hope that I can play a small part in its positive trajectory. 

I likely won't be sharing too much about the specifics of my journey just yet. But, I may continue to write my thoughts as they come inspired within me over the coming months.

I'd like to thank first and foremost my wife Abeera for giving me courage everyday and believing in me more than anyone. An incredible set of parents who have allowed me to pursue a life of dreams and passion with a pragmatic South Asian twist ;). My sister who has come to understand her brother's craziness. Two of my closest mentors Joshua Miller and William Spruill. My crazy friend Kieran Williams who shows me what a person is capable of through dedication. And plenty of other very close people who I share my appreciation to privately.

Quick note on mental models: Everyone uses them whether they realize it or not. Mental models are abstractions, explanations, or frameworks that help us make sense of something. They are shortcuts that allow us to observe and respond to the world around us. 

I won't claim to be an expert in mental models, I'm certain I have a few flawed self-constructed ones I use on a daily basis that will cause me trouble at some point. But, they've helped me and even shaped me so far.

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Source: https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713

Simon Sinek, also wrote a great book about this: https://simonsinek.com/the-infinite-game 

The concept of Finite Games and Infinite Games was proposed by James P. Carse and there is quite no way to describe it better than he did himself: 

"There are at least two kinds of games: finite and infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play. Finite games are those instrumental activities - from sports to politics to wars - in which the participants obey rules, recognize boundaries and announce winners and losers. The infinite game - there is only one - includes any authentic interaction, from touching to culture, that changes rules, plays with boundaries and exists solely for the purpose of continuing the game. A finite player seeks power; the infinite one displays self-sufficient strength. Finite games are theatrical, necessitating an audience; infinite ones are dramatic, involving participants..."

One of the best books of our generation might be Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Stealing from Samuel Thomas Davies, the book can be summarized in three sentences:

1. Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.
2. Shallow work is non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style work, often performed while distracted.
3. Deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive twenty-first-century economy.

Deep work means dedicating a significant chunk of your day to a single task, project, or focus area. In a world full of tweets, Reels/TikToks, instant notifications you cannot get meaningful work completed by being distracted from the task at hand. It minimizes your ability to keep the mental threads in order, and you may be missing on highly insightful discoveries.

But in order to spend a significant amount of time on a single task, you need the ability to minimize what is on your plate at any given time.

You could do 10 things in a shallow way OR you can do 2 things in a very deep way. Cal Newport argues that the latter creates much more value in the world.

It's something I've been following for a few years now. I spend a large chunk of my mornings (3-4 hours) on a single focus area, where I've intentionally made sure that my meetings are dispersed in such a manner that allow me the freedom to do this.

This is not just important for YOU to understand, but it's vitally important for organizations to allow such behavior to exist. Paul Graham has a very famous essay on this titled "Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule". I definitely don't see myself as a Manager, so I strictly like the follow the Maker's schedule.

I've got a few rules that help me produce what I consider good work without losing my sanity:

1. No work notifications. Emails, Slack notifications are completely turned off from my mobile. Inform your team that if something is urgent they can call you.

2. Try as hard as possible to find 3-4 "free" hours during your most creative time. For me, it's the first thing in the morning.

3. If you can't avoid meetings during your "peak creative time". Then try to bunch as much of them possible into a single day. If you are to be disrupted, let it happen all at once to save you the rest of the week. This is normal, it will happen, don't sulk, find ways to save the rest of your time.

4. Be ruthless on focus. If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Identify what moves the needle, shut up and go do that. Let the unimportant, less urgent slip.

5. Write it down before you sleep. I got this one from Marc Andreeson, write down what you want to accomplish tomorrow before going to sleep. By the time you wake up you will know exactly where your energy needs to go for a quality day.

6. Rest. The same way your body only has a certain number of physical calories to expend before replenishing, so does your mind. "Mental calories" is something that needs management, your best work will happen when your mind feels it's best.

Ofcourse, this is simply what works for me and has had made significant strides in my ability to create meaningful output. It also helps me stay consistent with a routine, and a way to avoid being burnt out.

I find writing to fulfill a few functions in my own life: catharsis, structure, and deceleration. But, they all they stem from the same issue I have in my life, and I believe many others also feel:

Information Overload. In a hyper connected world, we are constantly bombarded by input from the world. A Slack message, an e-mail, a text, an app notification, even scrolling through Twitter consuming nano-thoughts that naturally have a mental response in your brain. Our brains simply were never evolved for information intake at such a rate. Which is why it is so difficult to sit down and actually produce deep and meaningful work before being naturally interrupted by our lives again.

I haven't found any solutions to my monkey brain for being so reactive to all of this world's input. But I have found a way to make sense of it. And that is writing. 

It's cathartic because I often need to release my own thoughts from my brain rather than have the world give me more things to respond to. This provides a tangible way for me to do so.

It provides me structure because I can actually SEE my thoughts. I believe this is an underrated aspect I overlooked for a long time. We have a swirling concoction of thoughts that all sort of interweave in and out of one another and we can't seem to separate any of them. But if you actually sit down and write you are literally able to see those thoughts as written sentences and distinguish one thought from another.

Lastly, deceleration. I've always been the person whose brain moved faster than this hands, therefore putting pen to paper or typing on a keyboard actually forces me brain to become rate-limited by my ability to produce words on a medium. I think slower, but deeper. 

Journaling is my #1 recommended habit for any of my friends who deal with Information Overload. And please don't turn away from writing because you believe it has to be a public endeavor. Pick up a journal, find a pen, and just write what comes to your mind. Over time you'll be able to understand your thoughts in a clearer way. 

But by creating a mechanism for yourself to think clearly, you create an ability and a skill to communicate those ideas into the world in a way others may understand. 

I did say I would try to write more frequently.

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I realize this all too often, where what we need to do is quite clear, but our subconscious wants to complicate the issue. 

For example, it's easy for me to give advice to a founder about a particular situation that they might be dealing with. Yet, when I find myself in a similar situation I will run through 1000 hurdles on why that advice won't work for me, because I'm a special little butterfly. 

Intellectualizing concepts, ideas, behaviors, and habits is fairly easy. Anyone can read, and even share, an article about how important 7-9 hours of sleep are for your mind and body, despite this we will sit late into the night on our phones doom-scrolling precious sleep time away.

If you want the benefits of wisdom, don't just learn it... practice it.

I spend a good bit of time writing to myself on pen and paper or my iPad. I constantly battle myself to write publicly more often, but I always get bogged down with the what-ifs and what to write about. Ironically, I don't do the same with my tweets (I just shout whatever comes to my mind). 

This is my first post to force myself to write more, and perfect the craft of writing over time. Time to minimize the overthinking.

Expect a random conglomerate of subjects ranging from philosophy, personal experience, startups and entrepreneurship, crypto, climate change, football (soccer) and more.

Thanks, until next time.